The Albany Quadrant weekly band and our experience at learning together is what inspired the beginnings of this blog. Starting with a very wide range of experience (from none to quite a lot), we have all expanded what we can ring in different ways. Besides learning as individuals, there is a separate 'band' entity, which has a dynamic of its own, different from when we each ring with other bands. Our weekly band consists (most of the time) of Simon, Tina, Angela and Jonathan, with occasional visits from Marcus and Nick.
Earlier this year, Simon Aves alerted me to the fact that the number of handbell peals rung in Scotland was approaching 200. We have a complete record of handbell peals by the Scottish Association, but finding all the peals rung for other associations takes a lot of work - which...
Yesterday we had our first session with Sgurr a' Chaorachain. We've rung it in the tower, but not since 2020, and I rang it a bit online in 2021. It looks rather spiky, but most of the spiky parts are good landmarks because they involve many bells simultaneously: the pairs...
We rang a quarter of Remus this week, which was satisfying. We've been working on it since the beginning of the year, although far from every week - along the way we've rung a few other quarters of surprise major and royal as well as practising Cambridge Maximus.
We've decided...
I sometimes enjoy a cryptic crossword, but yesterday we were filling in the gaps in the grid of Remus. This has been our surprise royal project for a while, with the usual interruptions and diversions. Yesterday's session was quite satisfying, considering that we have had a break of several weeks...
It's a shockingly long time since I last wrote anything, so here's a quick update.
We've been continuing with the Sunday afternoon band, working up to touches of Bob Minor with some detours into Double Bob and Reverse Bob. We've realised that another useful diagram that isn't in the book...
We've had a few sessions of practising Remus, making some progress, but yesterday we tried a different approach. It was partly inspired by one of Mary Jones's blogs. What had been happening was that we were ringing in "quarter peal mode" even though we were still at the stage...
This week we finally managed to get a ten-bell band together, and we succeeded with a quarter of Fermanagh. Like many of the methods I've been advocating as a modern surprise royal repertoire, it has a clear separation between frontwork and backwork. There are also many minor and major...
Yesterday we rang a quarter of Bristol (Major) because Peter wanted to practise the 3-4 position. Around this time last year, Jonathan asked for a composition in which one of the pairs wouldn't ring the coursing position - he was going to call a quarter in which one of the...
We often discuss rule-based ringing, but what about exception-based ringing?
There are lots of examples. Ipswich is Cambridge with plain hunting at the half lead; Quedgeley is Yorkshire with far-dodge-near in 5-6; New Cambridge is Cambridge with dodge and lead in 6th place bell; Maypole is Bristol with the treble...
The plan for Monday this week was to practise Fermanagh Surprise Royal, but we were one short because of illness. As Nottinghamshire Delight Major has a similar structure - Cornwall with some wrong hunting inserted into the frontwork - we decided to ring a quarter of it, and managed very...